Preview – National Firearms Museum

What’s on your list of places to go and places to see? Perhaps Disney World with the family. Maybe the Grand Canyon to see Mother Nature’s majestic beauty. But have you ever thought about making the NRA National Firearms Museum a destination? If you’re a gun enthusiast, it’s one box you must check off your bucket list.

The National Firearms Museum is working constantly to preserve American history and the guns that have played a role in it, and the collection traces the evolution of firearms over six centuries of development. The guns range from the earliest of hand cannons to the latest in technology, like the .50-caliber M82A1. Did we mention it has a collection of more than 7,000 pieces? Now do we have your interest piqued?

On our recent visit to the facility — located at the NRA headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia — we were met by gun scholar and museum director Jim Supica, who led us through the campus with encyclopedic knowledge and contagious enthusiasm. Most importantly, he gave us historical context. We first walked through the anchor of the facility, the Robert E. Petersen Gallery.